A special prayer trail has been created to help people to find space to lament and acknowledge the multiple effects of Covid-19 on their lives, both individually and as a community.
The Prayer Trail is now available as a playlist on YouTube.
The trail, entitled Covid-19: All we have lost, is available at the Cathedral throughout November. It leads visitors on a route around the building [please note that due to the November lockdown, all the prayer stations can now be seen in the nave, which is open for private prayer], stopping at displays reflecting various aspects of what we have lost during the pandemic – jobs, education, music and culture, people. Amongst the displays will be a collection of simple crosses, laid out to represent the passing of a person in Peterborough who has died from Covid-19.
Visitors will be invited to pick up their own copy of a booklet to use as they explore the trail, with questions, bible quotes, suggested prayers and prompts to help them to think through their own response to the pandemic. Work is underway to offer the trail as an online resource.
Canon Sarah Brown, who has worked with colleagues to develop the trail, said:
“Lockdown has been a strange combination of loss and hope – so many good signs of love but also so much loss – death of course, but also security, innocence, freedom and a sense of identity. People of all faiths and none have a lot to think about and much to share. We hope that this trail will help us to make space for our feelings of devastation and also to move forward with hope.”
The main picture used throughout the trail is of a person overwhelmed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii in the first century, turned to stone by heat and ash. Canon Sarah explains this choice:
“This is the posture of someone who is powerless in the midst of chaos, curled up in tears or prayer or both. Whilst we have faced a virus not a volcano, there is something in their plight that speaks to anyone whose world has been, even partially, turned upside down by loss or fear.”
On Remembrance Sunday itself, 8th November at 3.30pm, there will be a special Service of Reflection and Remembrance in the Cathedral to remember those who have died as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in this city. The service will be led by the Dean, the Very Revd Chris Dalliston, with music from the Cathedral Choir. During the service a cross and a rainbow will be placed on the altar, representing those who have died and also those who continue working to care for others in hospitals, care homes, hospices and families.
Entry details
For further information please visit www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk or call 01733 355315.
Photo below: © Terry Harris
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